I’m not crying, you’re crying

Pet love is real, y’all. And if you need any more proof, just allow us to point you to some research published in the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology on Monday.

Its findings show that pet dogs’ eyes are filled with tears of happiness when they’re reunited with their owners. Which, if true, would represent the first evidence of emotional crying in nonhuman animals.

💦🐕 A deeper dive… Japanese professor Takefumi Kikusui said he first got the idea to research dog tears after ​​noticing one of his poodles grew teary-eyed whenever she would nurse her puppies. To further investigate the matter, Kikusui recruited a team of fellow scientists to carry out what’s known as the Schirmer Tear Test.

• Following a period of separation between five and seven hours, the researchers discovered that reuniting a dog with their owner increased the amount of tears they produced by an average of 10% above baseline levels.
• Meanwhile, reuniting a dog with someone they’re familiar with – but isn’t their owner – had no effect on tear levels at all.

🐶 Survival of the cutest: Kikusui said it’s possible that dogs evolved tears to further cement the bond between human and canine. When his team showed 74 people pictures of dogs’ faces with and without artificial tears in them, they gave more positive responses when looking at dogs with teary eyes.